The European Union de votes a lot of attention to the agricultural policy of its member states. It recommends the strategy, assists with the management and grants various subsidies to farmers. However, while doing so it often forgets about the owners of forests and wooded areas, particularly in the countries in transition accessing the European Union. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the political situation in those countries changed quite dramatically. The former central planning economy is turning into the market economy and private property is regaining the important role it has played in the past. Thus, after the restitution, state-owned forests in those countries are being returned to their former owners. The owners are obligated to manage them economically and to take into account the ecological requirements.

It is a known fact that today the price of timber is much too low, whereas the payment for working in the woods, which is labour intensive, demanding and dangerous, is quite high. After damage caused by severe weather conditions it often happens that the expenses of a forest owner exceed the revenues earned by selling timber. That is why it is necessary to ensure to the forest owners, particularly to the ones in the highlands, an additional revenue which is needed for a successful management of wooded areas.

An option for this additional revenue is the introduction of eco-hunting tourism which has already been present in some democratic European countries for a very long time. In the transitional countries hunting is still not in the domain of forest owners but in the hands of the state or of hunting organizations. In our country hunting is still the fortress of the former regime. That is why the forest owners demand that these "fortresses" which actually represent the old privileges be pulled down and hunting become an activity managed by the owners of wooded and agricultural areas.

As a representative of the Slovene Association of Forest Owners and Claimants to Hunting Rights, I appeal to forest owners in transitional countries to regain the hunting rights as soon as possible; these rights are inherent rights of an owner or related to the ownership of the land. Our Association has been striving for several years to introduce such hunting legislation in the Republic of Slovenia which would be comparable to European. As the first item on our agenda we demand the restitution of hunting grounds as they had been up to 1945–46. Namely, up to that time the hunting legislation in Slovenia was very well regulated. The owners of 115 to 200 ha of hunting land had their own hunting grounds which they used by themselves or leased. The lands of owners who owned smaller hunting areas were usually combined and in this way the so-called "combined hunting grounds" were established which could then also be leased. This was the leasehold hunting system which we also demand to be reintroduced today. According to the European legislation game is no-man's-property (res nullius) and becomes the property of the person on whose land it is shot. In short, these well known facts have for a long time been an inherent part of the European legislation and are respected in several countries (Austria, Germany, Denmark).

In countries under the communist system people have been deprived of private property and thereby of hunting rights. But since by today almost 80 % of forests are already privately owned in Slovenia, it is also necessary to immediately regulate the hunting legislation in accordance with this fact.

Bearing in mind the above stated, we expect from the European Union to take our initiatives into consideration for which our Association would like to express our thanks in advance. Regarding the hunting legislation, we are not only talking about an additional income of forest owners but also about the respect for private property which is one of the basic human rights. The eco-hunting contributes to the tourist development of entire regions and also creates new jobs

President:          
Inka Stritar, Prof